Hi guys. After lurking this forum as a guest for a few weeks I finally signed up and this is my first post. This is concerning guitar recording techniques, which is of course not a rare subject here, but many posts are quite specific and after scanning through some articles I just decided to jot down my own specific request for advice. All redirections to other threads concerning this topic are very helpful.
So the deal is that in the next few days Ill start tracking down the guitars for an EP for my band. We play extreme (black / death /whatever you wanna call it) metal in a similar vein as Behemoth, Hate, Belphegor etc. Ive been recording music as a hobby for a number of years and I believe I am qualified for recording descent sounding guitars, or so I hope at least, plus the money situation in Iceland doesnt allow for expensive studio projects for extreme metal bands. The drums were handled by a more experienced engineer and the mixing and mastering will be left to him and / or other(s) with further accomplishments in this field.
Now that we have the back story, here is what I need advice about.
We plan to use a Vox vt100 for the guitars. Its not a cabinet but a great sounding and brand new model, some kind of half and half digital + tube amp. We, the guitarists, both own a pair, each, of newish ESP (the real ones, not ltd) guitars in great conditions and we consider us quite accomplished instrumentalists in our field, so initial recording accuracies (if that makes sense) should not be a problem. My plan is to record with a single SM57 mic in a very sound-isolated (or chime free) surrounding. After some demoing, although not with the Vox but with a Pod, I found that recording only one rhythm guitar on each side (panned 100% to left and right) to be very tight and sounding very good, but still not sounding as wide and awesome in comparison to our role-models ( I know it sounds gay) newer albums. I realize that the chance of me producing something as big and epic as the productions on newer Behemoth and Hate albums is zero, but I believe comparing can at least not hurt.
So to sum up, the questions are:
Is it necessary for us to record two guitars each side, compared to just one?
What are some directions, if you know any, in guitar recording particularly to this field of metal?
Are more mics needed, other than just a single SM57 to obtain a descent sound?
Please note that I wont be handling the mixing or mastering so the object at hand is to record the best sound without using internal digital EQs and the likes. Like I mentioned above I do realize that there is an enormous possibility that there exist many threads / articles on this subject so if someone just wants to say fuck off newbie, then please direct me towards useful threads while you do so.
Thanks in advance and this forum is awesome and really helpful. Dont change that.
Sigurður Árni
So the deal is that in the next few days Ill start tracking down the guitars for an EP for my band. We play extreme (black / death /whatever you wanna call it) metal in a similar vein as Behemoth, Hate, Belphegor etc. Ive been recording music as a hobby for a number of years and I believe I am qualified for recording descent sounding guitars, or so I hope at least, plus the money situation in Iceland doesnt allow for expensive studio projects for extreme metal bands. The drums were handled by a more experienced engineer and the mixing and mastering will be left to him and / or other(s) with further accomplishments in this field.
Now that we have the back story, here is what I need advice about.
We plan to use a Vox vt100 for the guitars. Its not a cabinet but a great sounding and brand new model, some kind of half and half digital + tube amp. We, the guitarists, both own a pair, each, of newish ESP (the real ones, not ltd) guitars in great conditions and we consider us quite accomplished instrumentalists in our field, so initial recording accuracies (if that makes sense) should not be a problem. My plan is to record with a single SM57 mic in a very sound-isolated (or chime free) surrounding. After some demoing, although not with the Vox but with a Pod, I found that recording only one rhythm guitar on each side (panned 100% to left and right) to be very tight and sounding very good, but still not sounding as wide and awesome in comparison to our role-models ( I know it sounds gay) newer albums. I realize that the chance of me producing something as big and epic as the productions on newer Behemoth and Hate albums is zero, but I believe comparing can at least not hurt.
So to sum up, the questions are:
Is it necessary for us to record two guitars each side, compared to just one?
What are some directions, if you know any, in guitar recording particularly to this field of metal?
Are more mics needed, other than just a single SM57 to obtain a descent sound?
Please note that I wont be handling the mixing or mastering so the object at hand is to record the best sound without using internal digital EQs and the likes. Like I mentioned above I do realize that there is an enormous possibility that there exist many threads / articles on this subject so if someone just wants to say fuck off newbie, then please direct me towards useful threads while you do so.
Thanks in advance and this forum is awesome and really helpful. Dont change that.
Sigurður Árni